Defence Minister Karl Erjavec and his Macedonian counterpart Lazar Elenovski signed on Thursday an agreement on cooperation in 2007. This year the countries are planning 24 joint projects, including language education and cooperation in training.
The pair agreed that defence cooperation between the countries was good. Erjavec explained that last year the countries carried out ten joint projects.
Erjavec believes that the countries are on track to intensifying cooperation. An important step in this direction is the designation of the Slovenian Embassy in Skopje as the NATO contact point embassy as of 1 January.
After the meeting Erjavec told the press that Slovenia would help Macedonia in carrying out reforms with the experiences from its accession to NATO and the EU.
He told the visiting Macedonian minister that Slovenia supported Macedonia's efforts to join the two organisation.
Erjavec also explained that the countries would sign a deal on Slovenia's use of the Macedonian military training grounds at Krivolak soon.
Responding to a reporter's question, Erjavec said the Slovenian army was very interested in using the training ground since it offered different conditions than for example the training ground in Hungary.
Due to the proximity to Kosovo, training in Macedonia would also be very practical, he explained.
Erjavec also thanked Macedonia for logistics and other support during the transport of the Slovenian 10th motorised battalion, which travelled to Kosovo via Greece's Thessaloniki and Macedonia recently.
Besides bilateral cooperation the ministers also touched on the situation in the Western Balkans, expressing their support for UN special envoy Martti Ahtisaari's proposal for the status of Kosovo.
They agreed that solving the Kosovo issue was crucial in bringing stability to the region and subsequently its efforts for joining NATO and the EU.
Elenovski believes that Macedonia's, Croatia's and Albania's accession to the NATO would contribute to stability in the region.
At November's summit in Riga the alliance promised the three countries they would receive invitations to join the alliance by the 2008 summit. Elenovski added that he hoped the Kosovo issue would be solved by then.
Elenovski also met the chair of the parliamentary Defence Committee Anton Anderlic and Foreign Ministry State Secretary Andrej Ster as part of his visit here.
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